Amid all the bleak news about college affordability, family finances, and the economy in general, it's nice to hear something good every now and then. And there is good news out there. Despite financial hardships, many colleges are not only continuing to offer generous financial aid packages, but are actually expanding scholarships, grants, and tuition waivers for needy and deserving students. As a taste of what's out there for students across the country, we're presenting a roundup of campus-based aid programs announced this week. Conduct a college search on Scholarships.com to learn more about these and other schools committed to helping students enroll and stay enrolled. While you're at it, be sure to start a free college scholarship search to find more ways to fund your education.

A number of cities, states, and universities offer promises, guarantees, or other commitments to cover four years' full tuition for financially needy or academically gifted students. While a wave of these scholarship and grant programs were launched in financially better times, more are still being unveiled in the current economic climate.

Manchester College in Indiana has rolled out a "Triple Guarantee" that promises to make college more affordable and less stressful for its students. Qualifying students are guaranteed a combination of federal, state, and institutional aid up to the total cost of tuition and mandatory fees for four years. Students with a 3.3 GPA or higher who qualify for the Pell Grant are guaranteed full-tuition grant aid. On top of paying tuition for four years for needy students, the college also guarantees four-year graduation for everyone who meets progress requirements, and will allow qualified students who need a fifth year to attend for free until they graduate. Finally, the school also guarantees a year of free tuition for additional coursework or certifications for students who fail to find a job placement or a spot in graduate school within six months of graduation.

In a similar vein, St. John's University in New York is also offering a substantial tuition discount to unemployed alumni. Graduates of St. John's who were laid off in the economic downturn can return to college to pursue a graduate degree for half-price. Alumni will also receive free career counseling services and see their application fees waived for graduate programs.

Finally, Texans get multiple pieces of good news. More students at Rice University will be able to graduate debt-free, as the university has expanded its no loan program to families making up to $80,000 per year. Students with family incomes over the $80,000 threshhold who still qualify for need-based aid will not be asked to borrow more than $10,000 in student loans for four years. Lamar University is also making college more affordable for Texans by unveiling the Lamar Promise, which will cover tuition and fees for all freshmen and transfer students who qualify as "dependent" students for federal aid whose families make less than $25,000 a year. Students who make more are likely to also receive substantial financial aid packages. Tuition assistance will come in the form of state, federal, and institutional financial aid.

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An open letter to Congress appearing in The New York Times and The Washington Post yesterday joined what is quickly becoming a chorus of voices asking for financial aid for higher education institutions. The letter, which was put together by the Carnegie Foundation, was signed by over 40 higher education officials, including leaders of several state university systems. The letter requests that Congress devote 5 percent of the next stimulus package to improving higher education infrastructure, namely state colleges.

Leaders argue that the infusion of cash into state university systems will help keep America competitive on a global scale, noting that for the first time ever, the segment of the population between 25 and 34 years of age is not as well-educated than the previous generation. The letter argues that construction and renovation projects are an important first step for colleges and universities that want to remain competitive, and that these projects would immediately generate jobs for displaced workers. While the signers recommend applying the money towards infrastructure, they suggest that it be given to states in the form of block grants that would supplement state education budgets, leaving open the possibility of other forms of spending.

This follows two other proposals for higher education's inclusion in stimulus packages. Both other proposals called specifically for increases in student financial aid. While this proposal doesn't do that, it may help prevent some tuition increases and discourage state budget cuts that would negatively impact the ability of public college students to pay for school.

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For many college students, finals week is under way. Even students who aren't currently worried about cranking out dozens of pages of college essays or cramming for comprehensive exams are probably facing a homework crunch during the time leading up to winter break. So chances are a 2,500 word scholarship essay is the last thing you want to think about right now. However, if you're a talented writer who is interested in community development and international affairs, you might want to squeeze this week's Scholarship of the Week into your schedule.

Hands Along the Nile Development Services has announced its scholarship essay contest for 2009, with a top prize of $5,000. Full-time undergraduate or graduate students, as well as high school seniors, are invited to participate. Essays should address the following question: "How is community development in the Middle East important to the United States? Why is it particularly crucial to focus on Egypt?" If this is a topic of interest to you, the upcoming break is a perfect time to start researching and writing. If nothing else, writing this essay might make you feel better about all the studying you have to do right now--after all, there are much bigger challenges in the world than passing that chemistry final.

Prize:

First prize: $5,000

Second prize :$2,500

Third prize: $1,500

Two honorable mentions: $500

Eligibility:

Applicant must be attending college full-time at an accredited United States college or university. Graduate and undergraduate students may apply. High school seniors who will enter college in 2009 are also eligible.

Deadline:

July 4, 2009

Required Material:

A response of no more than 2,500 words to this year's essay prompt. Essays must be formatted according to the HANDS essay contest rules, which can be found on the contest website. Essays and verification of enrollment must be submitted on paper.

Further details about the application process can be found by conducting a free college scholarship search on Scholarships.com. Once the search is completed, students eligible for this scholarship award will find it in their search results.

While maximum Pell Grant awards have gone up slightly in recent years and legislation such as the Ensuring Continued Access to Student Loans Act has helped students continue paying their bills, these thirteen advocacy groups feel that more still needs to be done. Family 529 plans and other savings, as well as college endowments, have taken enormous hits, putting tuition costs potentially further out of reach of many. Meanwhile, private loans have become harder for students with poor credit or no cosigner to obtain, further jeopardizing some students' ability to continue attending college. Advocacy groups hope that stimulus legislation can help alleviate these college financing problems.

The letter called for four major changes. Two involve contributing more to existing federal aid programs, a third suggests making minor adjustments and clarifications, and a fourth involves establishing an emergency fund for students who have been hit hardest by the recession. Under the proposed plan, Congress would increase the maximum Pell Grant amount to $7,000 per year (it's currently $4731) and fully fund the program. Funding for campus-based work-study programs would also increase by 25%. The group also would like to see PLUS loans become easier for families to learn about and obtain. Finally, the group suggests that an emergency student loan pool be created for students who still are unable to meet their financial need through help from their schools, college scholarships, and federal student financial aid. This pool would only be available at institutions that show a strong commitment to helping students pay for school.

While there's no guarantee Congress will incorporate any of these suggestions, higher education groups are hopeful.

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If you're thinking of heading off to a community college next year to either pick up an associate's degree or save some money on your core credits for a bachelor's degree, expect company. Similarly, if you're planning to attend a for-profit career college to up your chances of landing a decent job, you are definitely not alone. During recessions, people typically flock to college, often choosing cheaper or quicker degree programs to help them get on their feet and be more competitive on the workforce. Enrollment is up at career colleges and community colleges are expecting a similar increase. While reducedstate higher education funding and continued troubles in the private loan market are causing some problems at two-year and career colleges, both types of schools are expecting major increases in enrollment as more Americans deal with fallout from the faltering economy. If you're heading off to college in 2009, you definitely want to take all of this into account. Apply early for admission and financial aid, and register early for classes. Several community colleges are also instituting programs to fill empty seats in classrooms with unemployed students, so if you typically wait until almost the start of the term to register for classes, you may have more trouble finding a seat than you have in the past. While students enrolled in online degree universities won't have to compete for physical space, they may still notice some effects of increased enrollment. With state universities and community colleges facing budget cuts and increased enrollment, you may face more competition for fewer resources as everyone searches for ways to save money. One group of students may actually see less competition, though. The number of students taking the Graduate Record Exam (GRE) this year is down, suggesting that fewer students may be planning to apply for graduate programs. Typically, like community college and career college applications, graduate school applications go up during recessions. However, while MBA applications are up this year, many programs that require the GRE may see fewer prospective graduate students. The effects of the credit crunch on student loans, the uncertainty of the economy and employment prospects, and the desire not to lose a source of income were all listed as possible reasons for this decrease in an article in Inside Higher Ed.

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Last month, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation revealed plans for a new grant program that would focus on improving rates of college completion for low-income students. The first recipients of the grants were announced Tuesday, primarily consisting of organizations that either study or promote college preparedness and completion among the foundation's target groups. While few of the grants awarded will translate directly into college scholarships for first-generation, low-income, or minority students, many of the programs receiving funding are intended to help these students go to college and create success. Currently, only 25 percent of low-income students finish college, and each year high schools produce over 560,000 college-eligible graduates (most whose parents make less than $85,000 a year) who will fail to earn a college degree within 8 years, according to research cited by the New York Times. The Gates Foundation's stated goal for this grant program is to eventually double the percentage of low-income students completing a college degree or certificate program by the age of 26. The Chronicle of Higher Education explains that the grant initiative will have a three-pronged approach: "making the case to policy makers, educators, and business leaders about the need for increasing college-completion rates; accelerating success in remedial education; and ensuring that young people have the financial, social, and academic support to succeed in college." Coupled with the existing Gates Millenium Scholarship Program, which helps disadvantaged and minority students pay for school, these Gates Foundation grants have the potential to ultimately make not only attending college, but earning a degree and achieving college goals possible for the majority of American high school graduates.

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Yesterday, New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo and Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal announced that they had reached a settlement with the College Board regarding the preferred lender list controversy that has been unfolding since early 2007. The investigation revealed that the College Board had been offering discounts on its products to college financial aid offices that agreed to add their student loan service to a preferred lender list. Discounts of more than 20 percent off the College Board's proprietary software were given in exchange for placement on preferred lender lists. The College Board pulled out of private loans in 2007, but the investigations continued, culminating in yesterday's settlement, the latest of several with private student lenders.

The College Board has agreed to adhere to a code of conduct if it ever returns to the private lending market. The organization will be required to put $675,000 towards developing tools to help students and financial aid offices compare student loan offers. The College Board will also be required to distribute its new student loan calcualtors and "requests for proposals" (the forms that will allow for comparison among student loans) freely to schools for the next two financial aid cycles.

This news came as the Career College Assocation, an organization of private career-training institution administrators, released the results of a survey indicating the difficulty that students at two year, for-profit schools currently face finding money for college. More students are registering but not attending classes, and having trouble finding a private loan without a cosigner. The majority of schools report students needing to change lenders or facing higher interest rates. Some students are unable to procure a private loan at all, while others are contending with delayed loan disbursements. A number of these colleges have stepped in to offer institutional student loans, ranging from less than $1,000 to over $10,000, to students who are unable to meet the gap between their federal student financial aid and their cost of attendance.

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Are you a high school senior who already has entrepreneurial experience? While all of your friends were being handed pricing guns or learning how to man the drive-thru window at their jobs, did you decide to take a different route and be your own boss? While a small business definitely makes an impressive line on your college applications, it can be worth scholarship money ($40,000, in fact!) as well as experience and bragging rights. If you started your own business at least a year ago and are planning to go to college next year, you'll want to look into this week's Scholarship of the Week. The McKelvey Foundation Entrepreneurial Scholarship can help you pay for school for all four years, and might even cover your full tuition at some state colleges. Prize: Up to $10,000 per year for four years Eligibility: Current high school seniors who have owned and operated a small business or non-profit organization for at least one year. The business must generate sales revenue (except in the case of non-profits) and have at least one paid employee. Students must be planning to enroll at an accredited four-year college or university in the United States. Deadline: January 25, 2009 Required Materials: Applicants must submit an online scholarship application on the McKelvey Foundation website and be able to provide additional documentation when requested. Further details about the application process can be found by conducting a free college scholarship search on Scholarships.com. Once the search is completed, students eligible for this scholarship award will find it in their search results.

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While a change in or loss of employment can be a powerful motivator for many people to go to college to learn new skills and gain new credentials, funding your education can seem impossible with no steady source of income. At the same time, with a deepening recession and a still-growing unemployment rate, the job market is not favorable for many who have been laid off, especially those who lack a college degree. Luckily, campus-based aid programs can help make attending college possible for the unemployed. Several community colleges and at least one private college are now offering tuition discounts for members of their communities who were recently laid off. Northampton Community College in Bethlehem, PA has been making headlines recently by announcing the revival of its program that waives tuition for prospective students who have recently lost their jobs. The college has rolled out this tuition waiver in past recessions, allowing displaced workers to attend full-time or part-time and pay only student fees, which are currently $28 per credit. Student financial aid is available to help especially cash-strapped students cover the cost of fees, as well. Students are able to take 12 credits tuition-free each term, but must register after students paying full price. A similar program is being offered at Bergen Community College in Paramus, NJ. Reading Area Community College in Reading, PA also offers recently unemployed students a one-semester-only tuition waiver covering the cost of up to 13 credits. All of these community college tuition waivers, as well as one offered by Lawrence Technological University in Southfield, MI are profiled in an article in Inside Higher Ed. Other schools may offer discounted tuition or additional college scholarships or grants for students who have lost a major source of income due to the recession. Nearly all colleges are able to offer some additional assistance if students or their parents are facing financial hardships, though, so don't assume college is out of reach just because you don't live in Southfield, MI or Paramus, NJ. Talk to your financial aid office and see what they can do to help. And taking some time to conduct a free college scholarship search couldn't hurt, either.

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Providing incentives for good grades is an increasingly common policy for parents of elementary and high school students. In my household, report card day meant personal pan pizzas and a reprieve from the topping battle among my sister who didn't eat cheese, my sister who only ate cheese, and my own vote for a supreme pizza with extra cheese. After pizza ceased to be a point of contention, my parents switched to the popular plan of offering financial incentives for good grades. I don't remember the pay scale exactly, but I do remember missing it once I hit college. Many undergraduate students are probably in the same boat, thinking about how even $10 or $20 per A could mean fewer trips to the plasma bank or even an extra textbook or two next semester.

Two brothers, who also happen to hold economics degrees from Harvard and Princeton, had a similar idea. Michael and Matthew Kopko launched the website GradeFund last month to apply a model similar to fundraising for a marathon, where sponsors pledge to donate a certain amount per mile completed, to finding money for college. College students' friends and family members, as well as corporate sponsors and others interested in donating money to help deserving students fund their educations, sign up on the site to give a certain dollar amount per grade earned to a particular student.

Students create profiles donors can search, and are matched up with people interested in helping them finance their educations. Rather than agreeing to provide student loans or cover tuition in exchange for work, like in otherpeer-to-peer financial aid programs we've mentioned on our blog, donors on GradeFund, like scholarship providers, don't require anything in return for their donations. While it's unlikely that a student will pay for their entire university education this way (according to The Chronicle of Higher Education, the current highest pledge per A is $400), they could easily pay for their books and possibly even a good part of other expenses that college scholarships or student financial aid might not cover. Plus, since these payments are linked to concrete achievements by students already attending college, donors may feel less apprehensive about the recipients of their philanthropy floundering once they face the academic challenges of their undergraduate studies.